By Samuel Short September 6, 2024 at 6:04am
Wednesday’s tragic news of a school shooting at Apalachee High School in Winder, Georgia, that left four dead and more injured caused a firestorm to erupt over gun control and school safety.
With the presidential election only two months away, Republican vice-presidential nominee Ohio Sen. JD Vance spoke at a rally in Phoenix, Arizona, on Thursday where he remarked how terrible that day was stating, “I don’t like that this is fact of life.”
Were Vance’s comments hard to report fairly and accurately? If you work for The Associated Press, they are, and now his campaign is firing back.
The AP found it appropriate to take Vance’s remarks completely out of context and twist his words about the shooting with a phony headline stating, “Vance says school shootings are a ‘fact of life.’”
The lie garnered attention via an X post made by the AP linking to their article about Vance’s remarks with the above quote in a headline.
As many users noted how totally disconnected from reality this interpretation was of Vance’s words, they AP quickly deleted the post, but not before a user could screenshot it.
The AP deleted their trash tweet about @JDVance after it was about to receive a nuclear community note.
They’ve since reposted it here: pic.twitter.com/w35o8Fw8Du
— Steve Guest (@SteveGuest) September 6, 2024
While community notes on X are easily one of the best features to be added in promoting a more honest and open dialogue, Fox News Digital reported comments from Vance representative William Martin who was justifiably angry, giving the AP a more one-sided verbal lashing.
Do you trust the mainstream media?
“This is yet another case of the fake news media brazenly lying about a Republican politician. Senator Vance said exactly the opposite of what the Associated Press claimed. It should come as no surprise that the AP lost any and all credibility it had years ago, because they will lie about literally anything in order prop up the Democrats,” Martin said.
Martin took the chance to then focus on the Democrat presidential ticket and its headliner, Vice President Kamala Harris.
“Meanwhile, Kamala Harris has called for all police officers to be removed from schools, putting children all over America at risk. It’s yet another example of how Kamala Harris’s weak, failed, and dangerously liberal agenda makes her unfit for office,” Martin said.
Martin is right in doing what any good campaign spokesman would do as the voter needs to know how bad a Harris presidency would be.
But, focus on his remarks about the AP for moment.
It is not that the once-reputable outlet is incompetent and incapable of doing a basic search to see what Vance actually said in Phoenix.
The AP simply does not care.
The point is to push an agenda that Vance and the top of the GOP ticket — former President Donald Trump — are indifferent to school shootings and expect America to accept dead children and teachers as a regular part of life.
That simply isn’t true.
The “brazenly lying” media were outed this time, but this won’t stop.
They’ll be sure to try again before November, numerous times. Don’t fall for any of them.
Sam Short is an Instructor of History with Motlow State Community College in Smyrna, Tennessee. He holds a BA in History from Middle Tennessee State University and an MA in History from University College London.
